My grandmother and great-grandmother and great-great grandmother and perhaps even more greats.. are and were expectional quilters. My great grandmother pieced and hand quilted but my grandmother did not enjoy peicing but loved handquilted and made a modest income taking in quilts she had to turn several people away because of the long waiting list of customers. Recently through a decline of health my grandmother could no longer sit at her frame nor struggle putting quilts in the frame so she had to retire with a heavy heart and now she keeps her hands busy with embroidery and as quilters usuallly are so giving people she gifts her embroidery work to us grandkids or kids (which I cherish any item made from her hands). With her bout of bad health her and my grandfather had to relocate and move in with my mother and sell their home and most of their possesions. But I was so so blessed this weekend my mother made the12 hour drive to see me and brought me a big box from grandmother marked "Quilting". Grandmother knowing I am the only one left in the family who loves quilting had packed all her quilting things and sent it to me and let me tell u it was soo emotional!! I found templates made from old cereal boxes from my great grandmother's time. I found vintage blocks started and quilt tops not yet quilted (which I will quilt), she sent me 36 spools of hand quilted threads and get this-----a 100 yards of white backing!!!! which can also be used in quilts as well and a roll of batting as well. I found old correspondent letters among my great great grandmothers things swapping quilt patterns from newspapers and magazines and the one thing that really makes me tear up is a homemade quilting frame that my grandmother quilted on for a good 50+ years... so many hours she spent doing her favorite thing. I know she has know idea what that all means to me and again it is "just stuff" but oh what a quilting legacy I have!!!

Wonderful! It is so great that your family reconizes the gift through the generations. I'm sure that it was emotional for your grandmother also, but gratified her to know that her things were going to good, appreciative hands.

I hope you share with your grand just how emotional her gift to you was. And I thank you for sharing the moment with all of us!

I felt this way when I received several boxes of needlepoint canvases, vegetable-dyed yarns from all over the world, and nearly completed works of petitpoint and larger. They all came from my great grandmother who was a world traveler and collected canvases and yarns as we collect fabric and tools.

My own quilting history is in the Textile Museum at Colonial Williamsburg, a quilt made in Virginia about 1780 or earlier (their expert dating, not mine!). Since then, to the best of our knowledge, I am the first quilter. I taught my own mother to quilt; and her mother and prior were knitters, needlepointers, and embroiderers.

It's precious and grounding to know one's family history of needle and thread!

Thanks for sharing the wonder history of your family and quilting. I am not sure if my Great Grandmothers ever quilted or sewed. I guess I have never asked. Will have to do that :-) I do know that my Grandmother sewed a lot of clothes for my mother and aunt.

She was able to take parts of various patterns and put them together to make one item. Both my Aunt and Mother sew and quilt and hand embroidery along with knitting and crocheting. I on the other hand just quilt for now. My mother has told me that I have a lot of my Grandmothers ability when it comes putting patterns together to create something and that I have a eye for color combos. This means a lot to me since I was just a toddler when she passed away.

I only wish I had the kind of gift you received. I am sure it means a lot to you and you will cherish every bit of it.